I thought my Jeep was catching fire after a a 700 mile road trip and being 30 miles from my destination.

Some of you might have previously read my thread about dealing with different dealers trying to get my throwout bearing taken care of and it taking forever. If not heres a link https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-talk-26/another-service-dept-rant-22704/.

The Jeep is 2007 2-Door Sahara with 6-Speed tranny and has about 18,000 miles on it and is 11 months old.

Well, now for the real story. I finally got my Jeep back after it being in the shop for 5 days so now I could take my trip down to New Orleans from Louisville Kentucky to see my brother and to do some work. After getting my Jeep back from the dealership is was running great and everything was like the day I bought it off the lot with 7 miles on it. The entire trip was going great, 670 miles down with about 30 to go to my final destination. I knew I was about to go into a rough part of town so I decided to stop at a rest station to take a leak just in case a got a little lost I wouldnt have to stop somewhere. I get out of the car and everything is fine, 5 minutes later when I return I start the Jeep up and it rumbles a little bit like its about to stall out and I hear a real strange sound, not sure how to explain it, but I thought it was a semi behind me so I turned off my Jeep to make sure and took the key out of the ignition. With the key out of the ignition the car began to rumble even more and the rpms went up and down, then I smelled something burning. My heart started pumping because I had read a bunch of stuff about guys Jeeps on here burning up with similar conditions so I started it back up and pulled the Jeep away from all the other vehicles in the parking lot just in case it did go up in flames no one else would be effected. When I got the Jeep far enough away I shut it off and the same deal happened, rumbled and rpms went crazy. I started taking all the stuff out of the Jeep and throwing it away from the Jeep. After about a minute of the Jeep rumbling it finally stopped but as soon as it did it started smoking from the engine but only lasted for 30 seconds or so but you could really smell it.

Long story short I called the 24 hour towing service and they came and picked it up from the rest stop. Before putting it on the tow truck he tryed to start it with no luck. I asked the guy if this was one of the first Jk's he's picked up and he said he has been picking up a lot of new vehicles lately but he didnt say what for.

Sorry this was kinda all over the place but Im still a little shook up about the whole deal and not really sure what I need to do. Luckily I was so close to my destination and my brother was able to come and pick me up. What was really scarry is if I would have kept driving and this happened a couple minutes later I would have been on the bridge crossing into New Orleans without an emergency lane.

Any ideas of what could have caused this? I had plenty of Engine Coolant and the oil level was good. I wont get to hear anything until Monday since the service dept is closed. I am only supposed to be down here for a week and then driving another 600 miles or so to Ocala, Fl from here and then another 700 miles or so back to Louisville but Im a little skeptical now and am nervous about making these trips by myself with the thought of my Jeep breaking down in the middle of no where.

It seems like I have had more problems in the year of owning my new Jk then I had in 3 or 4 years of owning my Tj.

 

i have no idea but i know the new shitsubishi lancers have had a similiar problem. but it was a computer problem. this dosent sound like one.

 

That sounds like a very bad short in the wiring harness somewhere somehow. Good luck and let us know what the final verdict is!

 

Man that Sux!!
Your luck has got to turn soon.
good luck with all that mess.

 

Just a couple of ideas here
1. Real bad gas alky fuel -------------->shut the engine off with a load on it, so it cant just keep running.
2. Computer ---------------------------------> Remove the positive connector to the battery for one minuet.

 

I just installed some lights on the windshield a couple of weeks ago. Could I have messed something up when putting those in?

 

I would not think so! you just ran the positive to your lights and did not tap into any other wires right? If thats the case i would not see how that would cause your episode.

 

Yeah just ran the positive to the lights. I am just worried they are going to try and get me on something and blame it on me doing something. Other than me putting those lights in it couldnt be anything I did unless it was some bad gas.

 

WayofLife "On our last trip up to Death Valley, this 'ding' was soon followed by visible smoke billowing from the bottom of Trail Bud's JK who was quickly informed of it by SDMF who was immediately behind him. Everyone quickly stopped, pulled out our fire extinguishers and ran to see what was going on. In the end, it turned out that Trail Bud's auto tranny was severely overheating and ATF was pumping out the dip stick. This in turn caused the ATF to splash on the exhaust system and burn."
From this thread about a Jk that caught fire.
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...ighlight=towed

I know my Jk isnt an automatic but I do remember lifting my hood while the Jeep was still shaking and remember seeing the dipstick rattling back and forth like crazy.

 

Anyone else have any ideas what could have happened with my Jeep? I am patiently waiting to hear from the dealership here in New Orleans first thing in the morning.